CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY        

In the current age of educational reform, problem behaviors of students have become an emerging issue for educators, policy makers and school administrators all over the world.

Here the term ‘Problem Behavior’ implies to emotional and behavioral adjustment problems of students. Such problems not only impede educational, personal and social development of students but also may results in lifelong impairment functioning in social and personal life (Rutter, 1996). According to Bird, 10% to 20% children in developed world are suffering from serious emotional and behavioral distress at any one time and the prevalence is almost the same or higher for the children of developing country (Nikapota, 1991).

In a study Rabbani and Hossain (1999) showed that 13.4% of urban primary school children in Dhaka city have been suffering from emotional, conduct and undifferentiated disorders. In a study on secondary level students of rural Bangladesh Morshed and Ahsan found that 21% students are either suffering from any one type of problem behavior (Emotional symptoms, Conduct problems, Hyperactivity-inattention and Peer problems) or at risk of having such problems.

Adolescence is the time for rapid physical, sexual, psychological, cognitive and social changes. Since, adolescents ' relationship with their parents gets weaker in this period, peers may play a critical role on their mental development and pave the way for them to learn social skills, controlling behavior, share what they feel and discuss their problem (Massen, 2009). This coincides with global changes as well as technological processes, the new forms of cultural challenge, which pave the way for increasing the so-called generation gap leading to conflicts between generations that some values have become counter values as a result of lack of a clear-cut definition, and some counter values have become values leading to some behavioral deviations in this age group. Ericsson suggests that adolescents, who know their "selves" in a short time, will face the risk of discovering other roles being provided in an inappropriate way and take many possibilities for granted (Ganji, 2004).

Adolescents tend to be independent and objective to their parents and they question family values in order to prove their maturity and individuality and try to make and analyze their newly made values, although their chosen values are not the result of their rational decisions they've made logically. They choose their values for reasons related to their contradictions and motivations. These choices are sometimes unconscious. These are among major factors in emerging culture-value gaps between adolescents and their parents. This gap is sometimes so extended that opposes social values and norms and leads to behavioral-social disorders in this age group, so that it could make the community educational institutions make some efforts to control or remove this abnormally.

As the definition says, according to behavioral-social standard, abnormally or deviation is a behavior that not only causes destruction and braking social norms, but it also provokes negative feedback from others; hence, behaviors against social standards, criteria, and norms are considered abnormal and out of the ordinary (Ganji, and Hassanzadeh, 2009).

In addition, these problems could have an immediate impact on our lives or leave indirect negative effects by increasing public service costs or developing anxiety among in individuals. A student, for example, who leaves school not only risks his future career, but also violate social health and public service costs (Ganji, and Hassanzadeh, 2009), as a result socialization process is disturbed, emotional-social hurt and behavioral disorder and behavioral deviation, I. e. behavioral-social disorders, develops in adolescents. Behavioral

-social disorders are common disabling disorders which collapse individuals and inhibit them from success, and also make families, school authorities and societies face a number of problems and high rate of social dilemmas. Pathology of these disorders in adolescence, as a harder time than childhood has captured considerable attention from experts and authorities.

Pathology is the study of a set harms and behavioral disorders among adolescents that hurt adolescents' personality because of their development and deviation from norms and committing abnormal deeds in the community.

Many significant changes occur in this period; psychological are among the most significant changes in adolescence. A tendency toward peers in the process of socialization develops in adolescents in this period. In this life stage, adolescents need more emotional, economical, and personal independence and the most importantly they need to belong to a specific group called peers group and their acceptance (Akbari, 2002). In this period, adolescents must find a philosophy of life and their identities. These days unfortunately most adolescents cannot learn their developmental tasks successfully or they learn it with problems; therefore, there is a high rate of crime among adolescents. Therefore, this study focus on the effects of behaviour disorder on academic performance (A Case Study of Katsina University).

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

In recent years, increasing evidence also has established the negative academic outcomes typical of this population. For example, students with behaviour earn lower grades, are less likely to pass classes, and experience higher rates of school dropout than typical students and students with other high incidence disabilities (Wagner and Cameto 2004).

It is to be mentioned that, “the behaviors of an individual which can make it difficult for him to learn in the classroom, cause harm to him or others and isolate him from his or her peers are often termed as problem behaviors” (Problem Behaviors in the Classroom: What They Mean and How to Help, 2002).The present study considers the four attributes of problem behavior. These are: Emotional Symptom (e.g. headache, stomach distress without any medical cause; depression or general pervasive unhappy mood etc.), Hyperactivity-Inattention (e.g. lack of concentration, impulsivity etc.), Conduct problem (e.g. Bullying, Truancy, lying, stealing, Arguing, etc.) and Peer relationship problem (e.g. peer rejection, peer envy etc).

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) commonly engage in behaviors (e.g., verbal and physical aggression; social skills acquisition and performance deficits) that negatively influence both their ability to successfully negotiate peer and adult relationships and their educational experience (Cullinan and Sabornie 2004; Gresham et al. 2004; Landrum et al. 2003; Walker et al. 1992; Walker et al. 2004). Namely, when students are unable to negotiate social demands and meet teachers’ expectations for school success (Lane, Givner et al. 2004; Lane, Pierson et al. 2004; Lane et al. 2006), school becomes a formidable task. In the absence of effective interventions, these behavior patterns become more firmly established and less amenable to intervention efforts (Kazdin 1987; Walker et al. 2004).

Despite increased attention to the academic needs of students with EBD, their academic achievement, like their behavioral and social skills, does not appear to be improving (Lane et al. 2002). Unfortunately, these poor outcomes do not improve when they leave the school setting. This group of students goes on to have negative employment outcomes, dificulties with sub-stance abuse, and a high need for mental health services (Bullis and Yovanoff, 2006; Walker et al. 2004). Given that between 2% and 20% of the school-age population is likely to have EBD, this is no small problem. These problems make it glaring that there is a need to carry out a study on the effects of behaviour disorder on academic performance (A Case Study of Katsina University).

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The general objective of this study is to examine the effects of behaviour disorder on academic performance (A Case Study of Katsina University). The specific objectives include the following:

1.     To find out if there is a prevalence of behaviour disorder among students of Katsina University.

2.     To examine if behaviour disorder influences the concentration of students of Katsina University.